BONIFACE

(675-755). One of the Roman Catholic church's bravest saints was a missionary priest named Boniface. A deeply
religious man, St. Boniface was also a great organizer. Because of him the church in Germany became unified.
St. Boniface was born in Devonshire, England, in 675. His original name was Wynfrid. It was later changed to Boniface
when he became a bishop. The future saint received his early schooling at a monastery in Exeter, near his home.
Later he joined the Benedictine Order at Nursling, where he was ordained a priest in 705. Boniface had always been
attracted to the missionary field and about 718 he set out on a journey to Frisia (now the province of Friesland
in The Netherlands). His missionary efforts proved unsuccessful because of disturbed conditions in that country.
Three years later, however, he returned to Frisia to preach to the people. Authorized by Pope Gregory II, Boniface
also worked in the German states of Thuringia and Hesse. He was so successful in winning converts that in 722 he
was consecrated a regional bishop and given the name Boniface.
His first action on returning to Germany was to destroy the sacred oak of Thor, the chief god of the heathens.
The courage of this act won Boniface great respect and many new converts. From then on he was able to expand the
church's membership and to organize the church itself on a firm foundation.
Boniface established many bishoprics and built a number of churches in Germany. In 748 he became archbishop of
Mainz. He resigned a few years later to continue his missionary work in Frisia. There, in 755, he was killed by
a band of pagans. Today he is known as the "patron (or apostle) of Germany."